Tag: Karl Shiflett

Karl Shiflett has announced that David Long has returned to play mandolin with The Big Country Show. Long has a well-earned reputation as a master of traditional and early bluegrass mandolin styles, and is resuming a position with Karl he had held previously. He is […]

This report comes from C.J. Lewandowski, mandolinist with Karl Shiflett & Big Country Show. He was working at the Sheridan festival as the following took place. The photos were taken by Steve Jackson. The Sheridan Bluegrass Fever Festival was evacuated on Saturday (7/12/14) by a […]

If there was ever a match made in heaven, this is it. Karl Shiflett & Big Country Show have signed an endorsement deal with Pointer Brand clothing of Bristol, TN, makers of denim outerwear of every kind. This is a bunch of guys who wear […]

Terry and I have been enjoying spending time here at SPBGMA with so many of the fine folks who create, promote, broadcast and write this wonderful bluegrass music we love so well. Roland White spent much of the afternoon at the booth, which is always […]

From their high-spirited, energy-filled show to the playful lyrical delivery, Texas-based band The Karl Shiflett and Big Country Show always seems to deliver a memorable performance. With the release of their latest album Take Me Back, Shiflett and company seem unwavering in their brand of […]

This report, and photos, from Bean Blossom 2012 are a contribution from MaryE Yeomans, who we hope will be a regular correspondent and photographer for Bluegrass Today. It’s a hot one here today, the eighth and final day of the Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass […]

Take Me Back, the upcoming release from Karl Shiflett and Big Country Show, won’t officially be available until July, but radio programmers can access it now at Airplay Direct. While you need a radio account to download the tracks, anyone can visit the site and […]

An entire recent show by Karl Shiflett & Big Country has been posted online. The video runs just short of two hours, and highlights Shiflett’s strong new band, and their highly entertaining style of old school bluegrass. With Karl is Chris Hill on banjo, C.J. […]

From the home of Colt’s Patent Firearms, Mark Twain and America’s insurance industry — Hartford, CT — comes an intimate Sunday afternoon bluegrass club experience at the award-winning Firebox Restaurant. Located at 539 Broad Street, in the shadow of the gold-domed state capitol, The Firebox […]

Pinecastle Music has announced that Karl Shiflett and Big Country Show have signed with the label, and will release a new CD, Take Me Back, by late Spring. Shifflett goes way past a traditionalist approach with his music. Throwback might be the most accurate description, though […]

Last week we reran a column of mine about aggressive song-pitching, and I got this email: Hi Chris, I’m a songwriter who just moved to Nashville, and so far I can’t complain. I’ve gotten a song recorded by the bluegrass band Melon Rydge, and on […]

Driving home yesterday from the Bristol Bluegrass Spring Fest, I was struck by one overwhelming sentiment. What a joy it is to live in a world where Larry Sparks is a superstar. It may not be true everywhere, everytime – I’m sure Mr. Sparks can make it […]

No matter where you may live, it’s always good news when a new bluegrass event launches, just as it feels like the loss of a friend when one closes down. Here in Bristol, Virginia this weekend, we’re watching the first iteration of a new festival, the […]

How often do we discover bright young talent in family bands? The dynamic seems to entice and encourage the growth of budding pickers, who often develop rapidly in this supportive environment. It seems we never lack for examples, and here’s another. The Snyder Family has […]

Adkins & Loudermilk hit with a bang when they announced their partnership back in November of 2013, with reverberations sounding across bluegrass music. Edgar Loudermilk left his position on bass and harmony vocals with IIIrd Tyme Out, and Dave Adkins dissolved his own band to […]

On this day… On March 30, 1935, Paul Williams was born in Wytheville, Virginia. He was raised in eastern Tennessee. “Williams” was actually the stage name for Paul McCoy Humphrey. It was the name that he adopted when he joined the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers in […]

Keith Little, much acclaimed singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and performer who has recorded and toured with the likes of Rose Maddox, California bluegrass pioneer Vern Williams, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, The Chieftains, David Grisman and Peter Rowan, has graduated to leading his own […]

With this profile of Frank Solivan we welcome Brian Paul Swenk to our roster of writers here at Bluegrass Today. Brian is a banjo player and bluegrass nut in Richmond, VA who performs with Big Daddy Love, a multi-genre touring group based in Winston-Salem, NC. Bluegrass music, like […]

Tim O’Brien, apparently, never sits still. But Bluegrass Today was fortunate to catch up with him twice in recent days, once over the weekend before his solo set at the DC Bluegrass Union festival in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and on the phone a few […]

Being a bluegrass fan can be a curious thing. Some folks are born into it, listening to mom and dad play Flatt & Scruggs before they’re even out of the hospital. Others sort of just fall into it – perhaps they heard it on the radio, […]

It’s hard to keep a good man down in bluegrass music (although we all do like to be lonesome now and then), and radio broadcaster Larry Roberts is a prime example of that. Roberts has been a DJ for almost thirty years, and for the […]

Bluegrass is sometimes viewed as music for old fogies. The emphasis on tradition, the lack of electric instruments, the sheer lonesomeness of it all – it’s not Katy Perry or Justin Beiber, that’s for sure. In the past several years, however, it seems like more […]